8 Benefits of Having a Tiny Yard

The average American home has been getting bigger every year. In fact, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, over the last five years the average size home built in the United States is over 2,600 square feet. Tiny houses are a budget-friendly, eco-conscious reaction to these giant suburban homes that are seemingly being built in every corner of America, and they have been rapidly gaining in popularity.

How You Will Benefit From a Tiny Yard

Tiny homes also offer a greener, more Earth-friendly alternative to the newer, larger subdivision tract homes that have been popping up all over the nation. If you’ve been thinking about building or buying a tiny home, read on to discover the big benefits that these small spaces can offer.

A unique path to homeownership, choosing to live in a tiny house has quite a few benefits. And, a smaller yard is just one of the benefits you can expect.

1. Smaller Utility Bills

A tiny yard and home means smaller utility bills simply because there isn’t as much space that requires the use of electricity. Fewer resources are needed to heat or cool your living space, and maintaining a little yard requires very little to zero power or electricity since all of the landscaping tasks can be done by hand. Oftentimes, a full-sized lawnmower isn’t even necessary.

2. Smaller Water Bills

Along with your utility bills being generally smaller, a huge benefit to having a tiny yard is that your water bill will go down significantly. With a smaller yard, you will no longer have a ton of grass or plants to water, and there will be no need for sprinkler systems or automatic timers.

A tiny yard can be watered by hand with a hose as needed, and many homeowners have chosen to install graywater systems, where water from showers, laundry, and cleaning is filtered and re-purposed for use in the garden, making the water that you’ve already paid for do double-duty.

3. Fewer Landscaping Needs

Having a home with a big yard can mean big responsibility. A smaller yard means there are less materials needed to have and maintain a yard, and that you don’t have to worry as much about upkeep.

You can also be more creative with your landscaping options, and choose to have ground cover plants, flowers in pots, or gravel instead of grass. With less space to maintain, you also need fewer landscaping tools, less yard equipment, and you can focus on the quality of the plants you buy instead of the quantity of plants.

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4. Less Time Spent Working in the Yard

One of the main benefits to having a tiny home with a small yard is that there is no need to spend hours working on your outdoor space. The last thing many people want to do on the weekend or after work is mow the lawn or weed flowerbeds, and with a small yard, you won’t have to spend your free time maintaining all that green space — that is if you even choose to have grass at all.

What landscaping you will need to do is incredibly scaled-down and much more manageable. Less yard maintenance means that you have more free time to spend doing things you actually want to do, and your free time isn’t spent working on yard upkeep or other chores that are necessary for your lawn.

5. Smaller Budget, Bigger Impact

Renovation plans for a large home and yard can be expensive, time consuming, and overwhelming. And even if one space has been renovated, there could be other areas that still need attention, making the renovations seem ongoing and endless.

With a tiny lot, even a small renovation can make a big difference, and because the square footage is much smaller, there is a drastic difference in cost and materials than if you were renovating a larger area.

When working on an outdoor space, deciding that you want to install pavers or have some pretty outdoor lighting can be an expensive change in a regular-sized area. But with a smaller yard, your design options are just as varied, but it can be much cheaper to get the look you want in your space simply because you don’t have as much square footage to work in.

With a tiny yard, you can still get the look you want but for much less money, and with such a small space to work in, any change can make a big impact.

6. Intimate Appeal

A smaller yard can have a cozier, more intimate feel to it, something that larger yards just can’t compete with. Because of the size, guests have to stay close by, which encourages conversation and socializing, and everyone can feel included.

Having a quaint and friendly outdoor space can make dinner parties more enjoyable, enable you to inject your personality into the space affordably, and it can make your guests feel right at home.

7. Tiny Carbon Footprint

With a tiny yard, you can live in a much more environmentally responsible way. Choosing to install solar panels, composting toilets, graywater systems, or rain barrels in smaller spaces are not only easy on the environment and incredibly energy efficient, they are easy on your wallet, too. Because tiny lots require far less land and need fewer resources than larger lots (such as water and power), they are also environmentally beneficial.

A tiny yard requires less power to be maintained, fewer resources to be kept alive, and costs less overall compared to the average sized home.

8. Add Your Character and Personality

An often-overlooked benefit to having a tiny home and yard is that smaller spaces allow you to inject your character and personality into the space much more easily. Larger areas can be too difficult or too expensive to infuse with your own individual tastes, but introducing character in a small space can make the area much more memorable, appealing and fun.

Plus, with less square footage to work with, adding your own tastes to a space can be done for less money.

With their ease of upkeep, much lower installation and maintenance costs, and eco-friendly options, it’s easy to see why a tiny house with a small yard is so appealing. When it comes to tiny spaces, it really does seem to be that less is more.

About Author

Plagued by a chronic case of curiosity, Jeff Flowers is just a dude that annoys everyone around him with his loquacious goofiness. From beer to home living, Jeff is just trying to hack his way through life and write a few notes about it along the way. You can follow his ramblings here, or listen to him complain about Austin traffic on Twitter at @Bukowsky.

Comments

I think the best thing about the tiny yard that It takes a few hours and one trashcan to trim and prune it and you’re not completely exhausted when you’re done. And no matter how small the garden or yard, you can make it beautiful with some creativity and innovation.